Galaxies & Quasars

The research section "Galaxies and Quasars" is devoted to study the nature of the greatest individual objects in the Universe: Galaxies, quasars, and galaxy clusters. One of the fundamental quests in modern astrophysics is to understand the formation of these objects in the early Universe, and their subsequent evolution towards the diversity we observe in the local universe. For this we have to disentangle the complex interplay between stars, interstellar gas, super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies, and the dark matter into which the visible galaxies are embedded.

Understanding the structural and physical properties of galaxies and how they evolves across cosmic time is currently an area of intensive research. We use quantitative spectroscopy to characterise the stellar populations and the interstellar medium of galaxies and thus reconstruct their past evolution. One specific topic of interest is to uncover the connection between galaxy evolution and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). All this requires new observational tecchniques like integral field spectroscopy as well as the design and execution of large AGN surveys.

Galaxies in the early UniverseIn order to search for young galaxies at high redshifts, we exploit the next generation of surveys with large integral field units a, in particular MUSE and VIRUS/HETDEX. We then study the properties of these galaxies in combination with other observations at large groud-based telescopes such as the ESO-VLT, the LBT, and ALMA as well as space-based observatories including the Hubble telescope.

X-rays are produced by the most energetic processes in the Universe. Those conditions exist in the vicinity of compact objects, in stellar coronae, in active galactic nucleii and in the intergalactic medium of galaxy clusters. Space-based observatories such as XMM-Newton, Swift and Chandra and the upcoming German satellite eROSITA are required to capture X-rays. The identification of X-ray source require observations across the entire electromagnetic spectrum with ground-based facilities such as LBT and STELLA. Current science themes at the AIP are accreting compact stellar objects, isolate neutron stars, galaxy clusters and large X-ray surveys.Contact:Dr. Axel Schwope, +49 331 7499 232, ASchwope@aip.de